The field of this invention is directed to animal restraint devices, and, in particular, a splint useful during intravenous feeding procedures. Intravenous feeding of animals is best accomplished by injecting the fluids into the vein of the animal's front limb between the elbow and the carpel.
The absence of some type of restraint allows the animal to move the forelimb by rotation or flexing of the limb, either at the elbow and/or the shoulder or clavicle joints which causes the needle to move in or out of the vein, thus making the procedure very difficult. The most common patient restraint is accomplished by continuous `hands on restraint` by the hospital staff. When considering that intravenous feeding can take up to as much as two or three hours, places a burden upon personnel.
In the prior art there are a variety of splints which are primarily directed to the treatment of bone fractures, and are not useful or successful in intravenous feeding because they are not designed to restrain movement of both the shoulder and elbow joints of the animals legs, or interfere with proper placement of the needle.